242 A GAMEKEEPER'S NOTE-BOOK 



Thirty years ago the price of underwood as it stood 

 growing, at twelve years old, was about twenty 



pounds an acre ; but to-day five pounds an 

 The Uses acre is considered a good price for first-class 

 woo( j underwood, so hard has the industry been 



hit by substitutes for ash and hazel. 

 Though we have known underwood to fetch only half 

 a crown an acre, we have seldom seen it described by 

 auctioneers as other than " prime and ripe." The 

 most useful kind is hazel. All sorts of sticks and 

 stakes for the garden are cut of hazel. Wattle-fences 

 are made of it, neatly woven, and the " hethers " 

 which bind the tops of live fences. Closely woven 

 hazel hurdles form a splendid protection for sheep 

 from wind and rain ; they cost, to buy, about eight 

 shillings a dozen, and the hurdler is paid about half 

 that sum. Hazel is now largely used in making the 

 crates in which the product of the Potteries is packed. 

 The cleanest growths were formerly made into the 

 hoops of barrels, and one might see thousands of 

 bundles stacked in a clearing. But iron is killing the 

 hoop-makers' industry. One use of hazel has been 

 unaffected by time the use to which the country 

 blacksmith puts it, when he winds handles of the 

 shoots for his chisels and wedges being pliant, they 

 allow his tools to adjust themselves to the blow of 

 the hammer. And the hazel-wand remains the 

 favourite divining-rod of the water-finders. 



